Firestarters

November 6, 2017
This fast-moving if familiar guide to identifying and cultivating innovation from marketers Davis and Palokoff and management consultant Eder is flush with inspiring examples but short on new advice. The “firestarter” framework distinguishes between three types of “firestarters,” or people who make things happen: innovators “create things,” instigators “disrupt things,” and initiators “start things.” (They are threatened, of course, by “extinguishers.”) Not all of the firestarters are wealthy or in business; Elon Musk is a firestarter, but so is Mother Theresa (in fact, she’s an instigator). Moreover, the authors write, anyone can become a firestarter; one doesn’t need to be born with a particular personality type. The authors, each of whom embodies a separate type, hammer home the message that people doing what they love are most likely to become firestarters. The bulk of the book is composed of representative case studies, such as that of the first female CEO of DuPont (an initiator) and that of one of the first travel bloggers (an innovator); the rest is largely a rehash of familiar ideas about innovation, wedged into flame-heavy metaphors (“Thwart before they snuff out your flame”). The resulting book is quick but skippable. Agent: Leticia Gomez, Savvy Literary Services.